I took CalTrain into work today (actually light rail+cal train). It takes about two hours (driving takes about 1).
Probably won’t do this every day, but maybe I could do 1 day a week? That sounds do-able. This particular method was: Light rail (Berryessa, Tasman, Mountain View); Caltrain (Mountain View, San Carlos); Shuttle (San Carlos, Island Dr). Leaving from the first light rail station at 6:09 makes this a 1h 33m trip, while leaving later than that would take more (1h 49 min, up to 1h 57m). (Add about 10 min to those for walking from the shuttle to work The cost is 5.75 each way. Other options were pretty much all over 2:20 and mabye 2:50, for similar or more cost. I looked into but ultimately rejected: Lt. Rail to Caltrain by way of downtown SJ, lt rail by way of Tamien (South San Jose), driving to Caltrain and parking, taking a regular bus to CalTrain, and even an express bus going to Palo Alto from my house, then walking (from El Camino at Page Mill) to California St. station.
One annoying thiing was missing the office-to-train shuttle, which usually means waiting 1 hr for the next one. Other than that everything seemed to go OK. The commute is longer, but I have some free time to think about my week and plan for things to come. (Or listen to music which is what I did, mostly)
ok v. tired now. must sleep